General / Editor / 17 April 2007 /

Richard Gasquet battled his way into the second round of the Monte Carlo Masters and demonstrated in doing so that it will take plenty to put him out of this tournament.

The 11th seed secured a 7-5 6-7 7-6 victory over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco which took just over three hours and 20 minutes to complete.

However, those punters thinking of backing the battling 20-year-old to go all the way in this season event - and he is trading at 30 to achieve that - would have not been impressed when witnessing the Frenchman waste five match points in the second set tie breaker which he eventually lost 14-12.

That appeared to take plenty out of his opponent though, and Gasquet was eventually able to make his superior stamina tell.

"I ran out of gas in the second set and I have to say the Davis Cup defeat against Russia hurt me a lot," he said. "But it is a beautiful tournament here and I had no choice but to win this match."

He will now go on to meet Dominik Hrbaty in the second round, after the Slovakian saw off the challenge of Spaniard Albert Portas and Gasquet is likely to be made the favourite for the tie when the Betfair match odds market opens up.

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